So we continue into July, breathing out and breathing in, as Peter Greig mighty say. As we do so, it’s not quite so warm. After the haircut mentioned last time (don’t say I don’t fill you with excitement), I had a bath, and then we went to Morrisons and stocked up. Fortunately the car stayed in one piece. I also caught up on computer and with Telegraph puzzles. Very tired.
Sunday was windy, and a bit cooler. Led church service in the morning – Leanne came and seemed quite cheerful. In the afternoon went to Cow Tower with Des, Chris and Ciara to watch The Common Lot do a play about Mile Cross. Charlie Caine was excellent, but it wasn’t their best – too cheaply political. About 400 there. Then went to barbecue at Graham’s Quite a lot of people from both churches. Had chast with Phil and both Steve’s, Harriet and others. Home to see Beck (excellent) and Test highlights (disappointing). FTd with Amy to fix visiting dates.
Monday was mainly dry, reasonably warm but with a bit of rain here and there – enough to dissuade Dot from walking into the city. I walked up to Boots to get my new glasses fitted: they were pretty well perfect. Even the girl who fitted them liked them. Later walked to sorting office to post birthday cards to Joan and Holly: sent e-cards too. Caught up with e-mails etc, mended the fan in the bathroom and booked an electrician for the oven. Watched Van der Valk and Tour de France.
Tuesday – Grey all day with spots of rain developing into steady rain in the evening. Coolish. Because the car is still in bad shape, we walked to the Archant pensioners’ coffee morning at Thorpe. In our case, of course, it was a full breakfast, and unusually we had to queue for it, because of an influx of four very hungry and slow young people. This was after we’d said hello to Brian, who was sitting in his son’s car outside: he couldn’t manage the steps. Apart from that, he looked pretty well, considering. Tricia was at an appointment in the city. Spoke to Bill, Richard, Jenny and a few other people. Shelagh and Robin dropped us off on the one-way system going home, and we walked the rest of the way. In the afternoon Dot walked to her violin lesson with Anna, and I caught up with computer stuff, like editing our holiday pictures. Later I cooked lamb steak and we watched tennis and the Tour de France.
Wednesday – Aaargh! Cloudy with some rain and several nightmares. Took the car up to have the exhaust done and got the bus part of the way back. Then the cooker man came and changed the element on the lower oven because it kept cutting out and shorting the fuse box. When I cooked the evening meal it did it again!! Walked up to church to do Bible study: two people there I didn’t know; not entirely happy, partly because garage rang up in the middle of it. On the plus side, Leanne came and again seemed quite happy. Walked home and met the legendary Paul Dickson and Neil Haverson on Foundry Bridge. Had quite a long chat with them. Dot was in city.
WiFi was down and I spent ages trying to fix it; eventually I rang BT and got directions which seemed bizarre but worked. All very tense. Then the WiFi disc upstairs stopped working. I found a spare one which turned on ok, but it took ages before I was able to get it working with the TV. Suddenly worked just before Dot got home from orchestra. Pretty shattered by it all.
Thursday – Dry and reasonably warm. Another rather frantic day. Cooker man came back and replaced the fan while I was in the bath. No problem so far, but then I didn’t use the bottom oven today: we had sausages done in a frying pan. Phil came and drove me to the funeral director’s, where we had a good chat with Glynn about a tombstone for Andrew – and Phil asked about funeral plans.
Afterwards we went to the fishmongers on Magdalen Street, and he bought over £100 worth of fish (including some sausages, to be fair). He then drove me up to the garage, where I picked up the car – total cost just under £1000. Fish is cheaper. Car seems fine now: they sent me a video of work they were doing on it, which I rather liked.
Rather stiff at bottom of abdomen/back. Not sure why. Later Bridget came to clean, and we watched a fair bit of Wimbledon – Brit Broady beat fourth seed. Dot walked to bell-ringing: I walked part way with her, then bought some milk and plums. As you do. Then I cleared up and read a bit. At the end of the day I reversed the cable from the WiFi booster to the TV, and the TV (which had developed a fault again) suddenly started working properly. Both late in bed because we watched Tour de France.